This, I guess, is becoming self-evident . Not to overstate the point - Lind is not Stan Musial, or even Raul Ibanez. He has a .929 OPS - real good, not quite great. But then, Raul Ibanez wasn't exactly hot shit at age 25 (he hit a lusty .154 that year) so there's plenty of time for Adam to turn himself into a 37-year-old MVP candidate.

It's been seven days since the last site update, and I got nothing. So I'm just gonna have to fall back on the home team, who have been playing a bit better the past few days and are still within a couple of games of the wild card. They took two out of three from the Royals on the weekend, which I guess is good except that they beat Zack Greinke on Friday, had Roy Halladay pitching on Sunday, and really should have swept the series.

The Jays' offence continues to falter - especially the 3-4 hitters*. When Adam Lind is slumping (.114 average over the 9-game losing streak) there is no one to drive in Hill and Scutaro. Lind has been smoking hot since then (.450 with four homers), but with Hill in an 0-for-25 slump, there's been no one for Lind to drive in (Adam had five hits last Thursday, and got no RBI out of it). Unless those two are in sync - or unless Alex Rios and Vernon Wells finally start hitting - the Jays' offence will continue to flounder.

Also struggling is Kevin Millar - again, no surprise here. Millar was doing real well in April in a platoon with Lyle Overbay, but ever since Travis Snider was demoted, he's been playing regularly and his batting average has dropped 40 points. On three straight days, Millar started against Jered Weaver, John Lackey, and Zack Greinke - and he just can't hit those tough right-handers anymore (meanwhile, Overbay continues to platoon, and was the AL Player of the Week. Overbay can't hit lefties anymore, but is just destroying right-handed pitching).

As for where this season is going, I can only look back at the previous four seasons:

• in 2005, the Jays finished 6th in the AL in ERA - better than either New York or Boston - but couldn't score enough runs to compete and finished 80-82
• in 2006, they were 5th in the AL in ERA - again, better than both New York and Boston - and won 87 games. But again, they couldn't score enough runs to compete for a playoff spot
• in 2007, the Jays were second in ERA, behind Boston but well ahead of New York. They made a brief run late in the year, but couldn't score enough runs to complete
• in 2008, the Jays had the best ERA in major league baseball, but couldn't score runs and fell well short of the wild card

Toronto is currently 6th in runs scored, 4th in runs allowed. There are lots of legitimate reasons to worry about the Jays' pitching staff - but right now, I have to assume that the pitching will be good enough to compete for a playoff spot, but they just won't be able to score enough runs. That's what this team does. Every year.

Weirdly, however, the Jays actually scored some runs early this season, and are still just a couple of games out of a playoff spot. Will they pick up the bat they need to help them compete with the Big Three in the East? Will either Wells or Rios** start hitting? Will Raul Chavez continue to be haunted at night by ghostly apparations of his great-grandfather? It's a long season yet.

* For my own curiousity, here is how each spot in the order ranks, according to OPS:

Leadoff: Texas (.907) is #1, White Sox are last (.670), Toronto (.832, mostly Marco Scutaro) is 4th
2nd: Yankees (1.010) are tops, Royals (.609) are worst, Toronto (.824, mostly Aaron Hill) is 5th
3rd: Twins (1.021) lead, Oakland (.661) lags, Jays (.763, mostly Rios) are 8th
Cleanup: Boston (.996) on top, Seattle (.590) just dreadful, Jays (.734, mostly Vernon Wells) are 12th (yuck!)
5th: Angels (.961) lead, Baltimore (.602) are worst, Jays (.869, mostly Lind) are 3rd
6th: Tampa Bay (.997) are #1, Indians (.652) are woeful, Jays (.859, mostly Scott Rolen) are 5th
7th: Yankees (.848) are best, Baltimore (.580) brutal, Jays (.843, Overbay and Millar) are 2nd (nice!)
8th: Boston *.816) leads, Oakland (.571) is ugly, Jays (.725, mostly the catchers) are 8th
Ninth: Cleveland (.847) very impressive, Kansas City (.525) miserable, Toronto (.647, mostly Snider and Bautista) are 7th

** I guess I should mention Alex Rios' unfortunate run-in with a heckler last week (following a five-strikeout game). It's on the YouTube... and everyone is snickering about it. All I can say is that it is a true meeting of two brilliant minds... watching Rios and that fan spar verbally was like watching Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard going toe-to-toe - brawlers, to be sure, but also artists.

Elsewhere... I did manage to tune in and catch the last two innings of the Padres-Diamondbacks marathon on Sunday. This was the game in which David Eckstein hit a two-out, three-run homer in the 9th to tie the game - and that was San Diego's last hit of the day. Nine innings later, with shortstop Josh Wilson pitching, the DBacks finally scored and won the game.

What a weird broadcast. First, it took me awhile to figure out who the home team was - I still am not quite sure why the Padres were wearing uniforms covered in pinworms. Second, the San Diego broadcasters were way too chummy, calling everybody "Chase" or "Josh" or "Edgar" or whatever. Even the groundskeeper got first-name treatment. I'm a pretty big baseball fan, but I live in Toronto and had to strain my brain quite a bit to figure out who the hell these guys were. How many Chase's are there in baseball, anyways?